NATCHEZ — For the past three years, Landon Krueger knew what would be waiting for him under his Christmas tree when he rushed to open his gifts.

Each year Landon received a Daisy air rifle that would last just long enough for him to get a new one each Christmas. Landon would shoot his air rifles so often that a year of use was generally their limit.

But this Christmas, Landon was surprised when he did not see a Daisy air rifle under the tree. Instead he found a compound bow, an AR-15 pellet rifle and a pellet pistol waiting for him to start target practice.

“I was really happy,” Landon said about his gifts.

Landon jumped up and down with excitement when he saw all of his presents, his mother, Jessica Krueger said.

The compound bow was Landon’s first, and he immediately took it out in the rain on Christmas day to test it out, he said.

Landon has already tested out all three weapons, and they are already well on their way to getting the love that each of his previous Daisy rifles received.

The gifts were fitting for the 8-year-old who loves hunting and being outdoors. He has already killed ducks and squirrels and has become a pretty good shot.

“On the last squirrel hunt, there was one about 100 feet in a tree, and I got it,” he said.

Landon has also killed ducks, but one of his favorite things is watching his father, Patrick Krueger, kill snakes, he said.

On that same squirrel hunt, the father and son duo killed 10 snakes, and one day the two killed 33 water moccasins.

“He has always gone hunting since he was 3 (years old),” Patrick said. “He loves fishing, anything around water and hunting.”

The next goal for Landon is to get his first deer.

“We are still trying every other day to kill a deer,” Patrick said.

But Landon said he prefers duck hunting.

“You get to sit in a blind, and you get to shoot them in the air,” Landon said.

It will take some practice for Landon to become a bow hunter, but he is already improving his aim on the target he also received for Christmas, he said.

The hunting gifts did not end with the bow and guns, however. Landon also received binoculars, camouflage boots and a video game called Big Game Hunter.

But his two favorite gifts are the bow and the AR-15 pellet gun, he said.

But Christmas was not all about receiving gifts for the Adams County Christian School second-grader. He also gave gifts to everyone in his family, including a bracelet and earrings for his mother.